Houston ISD superintendent issues state of the schools address

HOUSTON, Texas (FOX 26) - "Rebuild and re-imagine," three words that opened up Houston Independent School District Superintendent Richard Carranza's annual State of the Schools address on Thursday afternoon.

One of the things he mentioned was what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida on Wednesday and how that district helped Houston after Harvey.

"This morning had a conversation with Superintendent Runcie in the Broward County School District, a good friend of ours and what you may or may not know is that during Hurricane Harvey, Superintendent Runcie mobilized his community to send supplies to us right here in the Houston Independent School District and right now, in their time of need, I want to make sure that he knows and that we know that we will reach out to our sister school district and make sure they have whatever they need," said Superintendent Carranza. He mentioned just how many families within the district were affected by Harvey as well.

"In a matter of seconds, hundreds of students and their families saw water engulf everything they own," added Carranza. "We have worked diligently and were able to open our schools as soon as possible but seven of our campuses were destroyed beyond repair."

Carranza also spoke about the need for additional funding for programs like the arts, for feeding those who are less fortunate or for students who speak other languages.

"214,000 students, out of which 76 percent of those students, are economically disadvantaged," said Carranza.

Going forward, Carranza said he would like students, faculty and staff to come together and ask their local legislators to pass more laws that would increase funding for schools throughout the state.

"Join me, let's flood the halls in Austin and put pressure on the lawmakers to help us fix the antiquated funding for public education," pleaded Carranza.